CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire girl pleaded responsible Thursday to second-degree homicide within the 2021 demise of her 5-year-old son, who was overwhelmed, starved and uncared for, weighing simply 19 kilos when his physique was discovered buried in a Massachusetts park, prosecutors mentioned.
Danielle Dauphinais, 38, faces 58 years to life in jail when she is sentenced subsequent month. Dauphinais had been scheduled for a trial and initially pleaded not responsible earlier than opting to alter her plea. She additionally pleaded responsible to 2 counts of witness tampering within the demise of her son, Elijah Lewis, in an settlement reached with prosecutors.
Choose Lisa English in Nashua accepted Dauphinais’ responsible pleas. Her lawyer mentioned that though Dauphinais didn’t agree with all of the information offered by the prosecution, she did agree she participated in Elijah’s demise.
The kid was found lacking and located lifeless in October 2021 in Ames Nowell State Park in Abington, Massachusetts. An post-mortem confirmed he suffered facial and scalp accidents, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and stress ulcers.
A physician would have testified at trial that Elijah suffered “torture, repeated physical assaults, ongoing psychological maltreatment, including emotional rejection, denigration, isolation, and denial of care,” prosecutor Bethany Durand mentioned.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded responsible to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying bodily proof and witness tampering in 2022 in reference to the boy’s demise. He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in jail.
Durand learn a sequence of texts from Dauphinais to Stapf in courtroom that expressed hostility towards Elijah.
“He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it’s not nice,” one mentioned. One other one learn, “I’m gonna kill him and I mean it,” and one other mentioned, “I hit him with the shower rod that’s all I did.”
Elijah’s father, who lives in Arizona, had introduced him to stay with Dauphinais, Stapf and their 2-year-old daughter in Could 2020. By that fall, the daddy had filed a grievance with the state Division for Youngsters, Youth and Households, involved that Elijah wasn’t getting correct medical care, Durand mentioned.
A go to to the physician that November confirmed the kid weighed 32 kilos and had bruises on his face, eye and arm. Dauphinais later instructed the company that her son was despatched to California to stay with Dauphinais’ sister, a custody association the daddy had agreed to, however Dauphinais didn’t observe by way of, Durand mentioned.
In October 2021, Dauphinais had given beginning to a boy at house. Stapf introduced the toddler to a hospital with the intent to go away him there. The kid companies company opened an investigation and will discover no signal of Elijah. Dauphinais mentioned her son was together with her sister, after which her brother. Each later instructed investigators that Dauphinais had contacted them and requested them to lie about Elijah’s whereabouts.
Prosecutors mentioned that when Elijah was discovered, he was 3 toes tall and weighed 19 kilos, whereas a mean 5-year-old boy could be about 3.6 toes tall and nearer to 40 kilos.
When Elijah was nonetheless lacking, Stapf and Dauphinais had been arrested in New York. Days after their arrest, Elijah’s stays had been discovered.
Dauphinais was indicted in 2022 on one rely of first-degree homicide alleging that she purposely brought on her son’s demise, one rely of second-degree homicide alleging she acted recklessly in inflicting his demise, and three counts of witness tampering.
